


あの 日 の 記憶 を かき 集めた とこで

by mikochan_noda



Series: Sasusaku-Headcanons [2012-2014] [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, Old Fic, Sai-introspective, finding one's place in a found family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24452908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikochan_noda/pseuds/mikochan_noda
Summary: I gathered the memories of that daySakura fills their home with photos. There’s the one of Team Seven back when they were genin, some with she and Naruto when they finally managed to make friends with Sai, one of “the boys” that was taken on a particularly warm day that prompted shirtlessness, and many, many more. Sakura’s personal favourite, however, is one from hers and Sasuke’s wedding where much to his chagrin, after being declared husband and wife, she thought it would be a great idea to pick him up bridal style.- requested bysun-summoning
Relationships: Team 7 - Relationship, Uchiha Sasuke/Haruno Sakura
Series: Sasusaku-Headcanons [2012-2014] [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765711
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	あの 日 の 記憶 を かき 集めた とこで

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sun-summoning](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sun-summoning).



**-capture-**

The first present Sai received from Ugly was…unexpected.

In her hands was a camera.

It was not the common point-and-shoot thin device that could be bought at any civilian town. This was something that most professional photographers would be willing to die for, as he could see that she even bought a huge case that probably weighed a ton.

“I know it’s expensive, but this serves as an apology? We kind of started on the wrong foot.” She blurted them out, a tremulous smile on her face. They had celebrated about some silly occasion in her apartment, as it was rather too casual for Ichiraku’s, or too unsanitary to hold it on the loud idiot’s place. They were finishing off her specially-made okara, one of his favorite snacks that she seemed to know during their travels.

“I thought that I could give you something more…memorable than a pile of _ramen_ cups. Besides, I had a high-paying mission and five major surgeries this week, so it’s not a big deal, you know?”

Photography was a well-known hobby for the upper-class civilians of Fire country, and the rapid surge of still images in his recent visit to galleries was the proof of that. Most people who boast that they had an artistic soul, but had no talent in the Art turned to these things that can catch a point in time with a single click, a mere press of a button. 

Its gleaming lens - an imposing, judging eye - stared at him on her hands.

Ignoring Dickless’ under-aged, drunken snores and the frozen gazes from a dozen of pictures that surrounded - in her living room.

( _A downturned frame was the first thing he noticed as they entered her premises. But it was the most prominent picture to him in this place._ )

Ugly gave him the gift with a laugh, hands smoothing over his.

He accepted it with a polite, empty smile.

* * *

**[focus]**

Brush fluttering against scrolls. Water filled on _suzuri_. Charcoal sharpened to sticks.

Two-dimensional icons of fierce creatures and sweeping panorama of beautiful cities came to life with his ink. It was the Art that was more familiar to him, where he could just imagine the smudges on his fingers as dark as clotted blood, and the going-through-the-motion strokes was like a well-practiced _kata_ of his knife. This was what he actually felt something for, despite believing that he was an empty slate.

But familiar things are often stale, when presented with an interesting novelty, thus his habits on a Sunday morning was disturbed when he went to his shelves, and found the camera he received two days ago staring back at him. 

He picked it up and peeked through his window with the lens.

In his eyes, the village became huge, like seen through a different eyes..

After a particularly awkward moment of prodding knobs, an alarming flash of light, and nearly breaking it against the glass pane, Sai became curious and took the usual option when some conundrum baffled him.  
_

The library, surprisingly for a _shinobi_ village, held several books for photography. They were out-dated, but the idea of a firm paper swimming in diluted chemicals, as slowly the picture comes to life in a room shrouded in shadows fascinated him.

Sai decided that, maybe, he could try this..

Besides, it’s the closest thing to ink paintings.

Opportunity came, when the Dickless grabbed him to go to the river, where all their colleagues are currently taking a dip for the weather and _Come on, Sai, get a good picture of Sakura in her two-piece!_

It felt immensely gratifying to hear groans of disappointment from Dickless when he presented blurry black and white images on his stash. For Sakura, for his gratitude in giving her a wonderful present, gifted her all the pictures of men standing together a few feet away from the riverbank, all shirtless and wet.

Ugly loudly told him that she already regretted her gift.

Sai, meanwhile, kept that picture when she was yelling those words at him.

Over time, these pictures of his team - _them_ \- together swelled in number.

Unlike his ink paintings where he could no longer draw them as objectively as before ( _he would add a few dimples in her smiles, making it more genuine; a hint of whimsical fox tuft on the idiot_ ), these film rolls and printed stacks was where he allowed himself, under the dim safelight, to see all of their brilliance, smile at their foolishness, and keep all of them as his private masterpieces in secret.

* * *

**\exposure\**

He didn’t know how, but Ugly had brought his camera with her.

After the massive destruction of Konoha, Sai had already accepted the fact that his brother’s last image, his prized scrolls, his old mementos - all things precious to everyone - were included in the things lost in this hellish war.

But it seemed that she was more than prepared, as she also gave Naruto his precious gama-wallet, tossed an empty frame to Uchiha and shoved the almost battered camera to his hands.

She grabbed Dickless and Uchiha by the shoulders, laughed and told him with bright eyes glinting suspiciously with unshed ( _happy_ ) tears as Hatake-san ( _late again_ ) limped to stand straight.

“Sai, we’re ready!”

His fingers were tainted with ink, but he didn’t have to imagine the coat of blood. His dark eyes looked at this team - a family, but what was he to them?

( _someone who only looks behind the lens_ )

His eyes narrow in concentration, allowing himself the brief second to take in the details: Dickless was still bleeding freely with a shallow head wound but his teeth flashing a fangy grin as he glanced to the right. Ugly’s hair was stained in soot with a ferocious smile and swollen eyes still trying not to cry. Uchiha was frowning, his arms crossed on his chest, and almost looked torn in either glaring side-ways or looking at Ugly’s chakra burn injuries on her hands.

Sai almost broke the knob in turning the spool, and took all of his strength to smile politely as he pressed the button.

_

That night, he contemplated in unlatching the cradle, unraveling the film to light

However, in the next morning, Sai merely stored his camera in a sealed storing scroll, where a stack of photos were also kept.

* * *

**||shutter||**

Sasuke was on his way to the Hokage Tower, wearing the standard hitai-ate and white-black ensemble, when an almost mirror-like image of himself ( _almost_ ) hindered his path in front of him with an impassive mask.

“It’s yours.”

The shinobi gave him a stack of monochromatic pictures wrapped in a rope. All of it contained either Sakura looking away from the camera, or Naruto glancing at her sadly. There are some pictures of Sakura being angry, of her being frustrated, of her trying to gently smile, and hide her tears, but not of those faces were as elated as he could ever remember before his defection from Konoha, or his recent return.

“This is for Sakura-san.”

On his other hand was a colored photo of Team Seven, a teary Sakura beaming brightly in the middle, looking at him.

There are many things unsaid in between them, as Sai gave them to him.

( _i was there, when you were gone for years._ )

“She’s been asking this for months”.

( _you were never replaced._ )

“Aa.” He nodded, acknowledging the gift with a nod. 

( _don’t ever hurt them again._ )

* * *

**_release_**

Sai remembered that the summer solstice was at its peak, and the horizons were shaded in its clearest shade of blue, with the skyline illuminated by the scorching sun. It was their first overseas mission, and they had been sent to the outskirts of the Suna, almost nearing the edge of the continent. Dickless had been spouting off a relentless rant of the heat and the need for a break, while Uchiha merely drank a bit from his canister in exasperated silence as Ugly hollered back for Dickless to shut up.

They were holding their first mission together ( _As Team Seven_ , his thoughts stumbled at those three words, and the meaning behind it.) and Sakura was leading as their Squad leader. Their Hokage - Hatake-san - appointed him as the second-in-command, as both of their companions were still technically _chuunin_ in rank.

Later on, three hours had passed in a scorching haze, when the scent of brine caught his nose. They were almost nearing the fishing village, with a surprising amount of tourists who wandered around stalls bartering with corals and fresh seafood produce. It was also filled with residents that were greeting strangers with a wave and an offer of their sales, but Sai had to dismiss them as their attention was more required to their current mission to be on a lookout at a certain threat to this village.

But any semblance of seriousness crumbled when Ugly grabbed his arm.

They ran towards the broad space, passing the huge clear gap of smokehouses, till they stood in front of the welcoming ocean.

“Look!”

She pointed to sun that had tormented them all day, now a simmering ball against the lavender-mandarin backdrop. Her babble continued as he stood before the mesmerizing sight, feeling the fresh wind on his face and the warm sand between his toes.

“I’ve read about this place! They said it was the perfect location for sunsets! They said this was a summer paradise! You’ve brought your camera right? I asked Kakashi-sensei if we could have…a group vacation! You stopped taking pictures lately, and we were all so busy in solo or different group missions. I thought that we needed a break.”

“You commissioned _this_ mission?” Dickless whined like a girl. “Sakura-chan! You’re cruel!”

“Shut up, like I told you a hundred times ago, Naruto!” She retaliated with a thud to his blonde head. “We’re out here for a week! Better enjoy it! Kakashi-sensei reserved us a beach house, and a fishing boat! So you better catch us some dinner later!”

Sai was ignoring the ongoing argument, as his mind calculated how perfect their position was, situated at the center, with silhouette adding volume to their profiles, soft light across their faces. Their carefree smiles and the arms that clung to his sides.

Sai wished that he had the intuition to bring his camera, but it was not something that he carried to missions. Regret deeply lanced his chest when he saw how picture-perfect the three of them were, but he knew that he would always stay at the sides admiring at the view, the dark fringed-holes on the side of negative films.

A mechanical whir startled him out of his gaze, the familiar roll cartridge automatically winding to the next frame, a blank slate waiting to be painted with light and shadows.

“Kakashi asked me to bring it.” Their silent companion was holding his camera, and the way Uchiha was holding it, it seemed that he knew how to use it well. Sai didn’t know how to feel about that. “He knew where your darkroom was.”

“Damn you, _teme_!” Dickless snarled as he turned to his Uchiha in mock disdain, fist raised. “I hate candid shots!”

“One more, Sasuke-kun!” Ugly ( _not so much, with her face rivaling any sunset_ ) held a peace sign as she turned to the camera.

Even when Uchiha was frowning at them in displeasure, his eyes flared Sharingan-red for a split-second, acting as a natural aperture measurement, swiftly capturing every detail. A dark eye met his as if in silent agreement, and Uchiha peered back to the lens.

When Sai developed the picture , his face was absolutely ridiculous.

( _A smile that was more alive than a thousand of ink paintings._ )

It was also the only framed thing that graced color to his table.

* * *

Eighteen months later, a private wedding was held in the Nakano shrine.

Uchiha Sakura laughed freely as she ran down the shrine steps in her pristine white kimono, the newly-married groom - now a scandalized husband - cradled in her arms.

“Sai, take a picture, _quick!_ ”

***click***

**Author's Note:**

> posted at sasusaku-headcanons last June 08, 2013 [[link](https://sasusaku-headcanons.tumblr.com/archive)]


End file.
